Paris protests over fuel tax could prompt state of emergency

By Theresa Braine

|New York Daily News|

Dec 02, 2018 | 8:25 PM

Protesters clash with riot police at the Place de l'Etoile during a Yellow Vest protest on Dec. 1 in Paris. The 'Yellow Vest' is a protest movement without political affiliation that is rallying against impending auto-fuel taxes and overall economic policy. (Etienne De Malglaive / Getty Images)

Protests raged for a second week in Paris as anger at an impending tax on diesel auto fuel continued boiling over, and the French government did not rule out imposing a state of emergency.

Returning from the G20 economic summit in Argentina on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron visited damaged sites and appealed again for dialogue with those opposed to the environmentally inspired tax. He stood firm on the diesel tax, which was enacted in line with France’s commitments to reduce emissions to combat climate change, according to BBC News. It’s due to go into effect early next year.

At least 412 people were arrested on Saturday alone in Paris, AFP reported, with 378 of them still in custody as of Sunday. National and city officials decried the violence, which has injured 263 people around the country, 133 of those in Paris itself. Twenty-three security force members were among the Parisian injuries, AFP said. It is the worst violence the country has seen in decades, Paris police prefect Michel Delpuech told AFP.

The protests were fiercest in Paris, where rioters vandalized an iconic statue in the famed Arc de Triomphe, hurled projectiles at police and set dozens of cars on fire. They were met with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon, according to the BBC. The interior ministry told the BBC that six buildings had been torched and that nearly 190 fires had been put out. In all about 136,000 people participated nationwide, the BBC said.

PARIS, FRANCE - DECEMBER 01: Teargas surrounds protesters as they clash with riot police during a 'Yellow Vest' demonstration near the Arc de Triomphe on December 1, 2018 in Paris, France. (Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images)

But the effect of the tax is felt mostly keenly in rural areas, according to the Washington Post—places where there is virtually no public transport, and residents have no choice but to drive. Moreover the protesters, dubbed the "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests) for their garb and its symbolism, sense a double standard.

“What is disputed is that drivers from the middle and lower classes are made to pay, but that in their eyes we don’t ask enough of the big companies and the rich, who also pollute the most because they often take airplanes,” Benoit Coquard, an expert at the National Institute for Agronomic Research in Dijon, France, told the Washington Post.

For this reason, the protests’ scope has expanded to include anger over Macron’s overall agenda, AFP said. There’s also the urban-rural divide in terms of car usage.

“Ask a Parisian — for him none of this is an issue, because he doesn’t need a car,” said Marco Pavan, 55, who lives in a small town near the Swiss border, to the Washington Post. “We live on the side of a mountain. There’s no bus or train to take us anywhere. We have to have a car.”